Price of fizzy drinks on the up as sugar tax comes in

It's bad news if you use fizzy drinks to keep you going through the day - they're getting more expensive across our region from today.

The government announced it would look to increase the price of fizzy drinks in a bid to tackle obesity back in 2016.

New research says we have our daily allowance of sugar by 11am each day.

David Fairlamb, a personal trainer from North Shields, said:

"I think it's down to habits - if kids at a young age get into good habits, they tend to stay that way.

"Unfortunately, the generation we're in at the moment, if the parents are overweight - or in bad habits about eating sugar - many of them don't even realise how much they're having per day."

A survey has also found a tax on unhealthy drink or food, such as the soft drinks levy, would encourage just under half of Britons to cut back on the products.

As the sugar tax comes into effect, analysts Mintel found it is likely to have an effect on 47% of consumers, with that figure rising to 53% of 16 to 34-year-olds.

Regionally, 53% of Londoners are the most likely to be deterred by a tax, dropping to fewer than four in 10 (38%) of consumers living in Scotland.

However, 75% of consumers say that clear nutritional information on product packaging would encourage them to cut down on unhealthy food and drink, rising to 81% of 25 to 34-year-olds.

Almost the same number - 73% - claim rewards for making healthy choices such as supermarket points would encourage them to eat more healthily.

More than half of Britons (56%) say they would cut down on unhealthy products if there were tighter restrictions on advertising junk food.

Just 11% say they strive to eat healthily all the time, although the proportion of those who try to eat well most of the time has risen four percentage points to 52% over the last two years.